Thought I'd put this up on here.... we'd be more than happy to have some of you across should you fancy it

Text follows
................................................................................
To all roboteers and robot fans.

First of all, Happy New Year from Robot Crusade and Black Top Productions Ltd!

2004 saw massive change in the sport of robot combat in the UK... some of it, such as the demise of Robot Wars TM and the failure of the world championships in April, no doubt came as a considerable blow to both the roboteers and their fans, and has left some feeling that it may be the end of this wonderful pastime.
It wasn't all bad though, there's been considerable growth in the "live event" scene which saw hugely successful events from organisers such as Roaming Robots with their winter tour (well done guys!) and dare we say it ourselves... at both Enginuity and Cosford. There’s also a growing interest in the sort of format that UK Robotic Games are planning to produce, and interest from schools, colleges, universities and science organisations is at an all time high. On top of that, there’s growing international awareness that robotics in general is likely to be one of the biggest growth industries of the next 10 years, with several studies claiming robotics has the same sort of growth potential as PC’s realised back in the late 70’s and 80’s (quite a claim!)

We here at Robot Crusade believe there’s much to look forward too, both in 2005 and the years to come!

From a combat robot perspective however, it’s no longer sufficient to discuss the fact we’re on the telly… it seems it may be some time before we’ll be able to do that again (though even that we’re working on quietly), so some changes to how we fund and present ourselves have now got to be made.

Robot Crusade have worked hard over the past months at making some of these changes, which range from building a partnership with an organisation with the resources to support such large events, in the shape of the RAF, to producing our new website at www.robotcrusade.com, forging new alliances with internationally recognised organisations such as the International Robot Olympiad, universities such as Plymouth and bringing new robotics equipment into our shows such as the FIRA Robot Football.
We’ve also assigned considerable time and resources to securing commercial funding in the shape of sponsorship, and though we haven’t yet done “the big deal” as such, we’re making very positive and steady progress in this area.

BTP’s Robot Crusade and it’s sister company Vault Arena, took considerable financial loses over the 2004 season. We produced 2 of the largest shows of the year, and built a 10m2 fully screened steel arena in 10 weeks, (it doesn’t half hurt the bank balance when you do daft things like that!)… from the point of view of getting our sport and robotics in general out there in front of people, it was a massive success…. But financially…. Well we’ll say no more.
So even with all the great news above, we’re being a little cautious about making too many promises about the 2005 season, other than that we have the potential of 5 of the biggest, and highest profile events this country has seen thus far, and that we’re through those going to be able to put the robot combat pastime in front of at least 500,000 people (quite an achievement when you consider the 2004 viewing figures for Robot Wars TM).
These events will happen, come hell or high water we will find a way to produce and fund them, and as ever here at BTP, we’ll do them as big and as bold as possible, all we need is the support of our friends out there in the robot community, and we’ll be away!

With that in mind, we are pleased to announce the launch of sign up for 4 of our 2005 events, which are as follows:

This is a static event with limited places, at a fantastic venue, with massive potential for the future. Applications are by email only. Please contact us at science@robotcrusade.com for further details.

The return in 2005 of this groundbreaking event is excellent news. Yet again we’ll have a hanger all to ourselves with a whole host of robotics displays in support of the main Vault Arena set up, as ever, expect some surprises from the RAF! Further info and applications can be found online at www.robotcrusade.com

This is a huge show, the biggest RAF run show in Europe, and Robot Crusade will have pride of place! The Vault will be along of course, and we’re once more planning a whole host of supporting paraphernalia. Further info and applications can be found online at www.robotcrusade.com

An event in Scotland! Surely not! (John Heatlie will be so pleased!)
Yep we’ll be travelling all the way to Leuchars, near St Andrews for a September spectacular. Details are sketchy at present, but you can guarantee that as with all the RAF shows, this will be quality. Further info and applications can be found online at www.robotcrusade.com

By the way, if you’re an international competitor, and would like to come along, please contact us on info@robotcrusade.com with any questions you may have.

So, there you go! Get over to the website now, and get those applications in to us, then get yourself out in your workshops, garages and sheds and dust of those hackers and thumpers, throwers and crushers… it’s gonna be a red hot year for robotics and robot combat, and you don’t want to be missing a thing!